Safaricom recorded a 314 million shilling loss in M-Pesa Africa, in the year ended March.
This amidst a joint venture it formed with its South African parent firm Vodacom Group,
The loss, reversed a 3.3 billion shilling profit Safaricom booked in the joint venture the year before.
The outcome was caused by initial setup costs and lower M-Pesa revenues
The profit in the first year arose from the discount at which Safaricom and Vodacom acquired the M-Pesa brand.
They also acquired a platform from their UK parent firm Vodafone Plc.
“And then from the joint venture you saw profit last year, which is the profit book by M-Pesa Africa in the financial year 2020 as part of the transfer of the brand and this year, there’s a loss of Sh314 million,” Safaricom’s chief financial officer Dilip Pal said in the briefing.
He was responding to questions about the telco’s share of earnings in the joint venture.
Mr Pal added that the partnership was not expected to be profitable immediately.
M-Pesa Africa is aimed at taking the mobile financial services platform beyond existing markets served separately by Safaricom and Vodacom.